Reflections after London

I am tired of this, but it goes on regardless.

Bodies were barely cold and details were scarce, but that didn't slow those with a political axe to grind taking to social media to make their point about religion or immigration. And sure I accept that the ramifications of these events can't be ignored and the discussion can be awkward and uncomfortable, but isn't it worth taking a day or two to reflect just on the sadness of loss, before we start the ugly recriminations?

Obviously there are a mix of emotions after an attack like this and there is a lot I want to say- more than I can put in this essay, in fact. But one feeling that sits particularly heavily with me today is the unmistakable sense that whilst I am surely despondent from the ongoing senseless loss of life, I am also sick of the arguments that inevitably follow each attack. If you feel my language is subdued compared to normal, that is no accident. I don't want to be controversial today- the name calling and the blame is not getting us anywhere.

There will be no shortage of poorly-spelt memes decrying all of Islam as the cause of terrorism and that claiming our immigration laws make us more vulnerable to such attacks (ignoring the fact that ASIO chief, Duncan Lewis, publicly stated there is no apparent link between terrorism and our refugee program). As I have written in the past, I don't think we can deny the fact that a large number of terrorists claim to be acting in the name of militant Islam, but there is a problem with consistency in taking absolute positions on this topic. Blaming Islam as the primary cause of terrorism ignores all manner of violence and atrocities committed by non-Muslims,, as well as the fact that the Jihadist terrorism phenomenon seems a relatively recent development, despite Islam existing for centuries.

The counterarguments are swift and equally strident. Many will say (perhaps quite fairly) that our immigration policy contributes far less to the threat of terrorism than our foreign policy over the last two decades and suggest if we want to reduce radicalisation of Muslims, perhaps we should stop bombing Muslim countries (more civilians were killed by air strikes in the wake of the Manchester bombing than in the bombing itself) and publicly vilifying their religion. They might also add that a central causative factor in fundamentalism is poverty and that with global inequality rising to unprecedented levels and being celebrated as proudly and ostentatiously as it is, we perhaps shouldn't be totally surprised. I don't deny that each of these factors play a role, but I am troubled by explanations like this that deny any ideological link. Moreover, I am concerned by any arguments that tacitly treat terrorism as a rational or partially justifiable course of action. There is no justification for acts like these and this fact has to be at the forefront of any discussion.

Aside from the overly simplistic positions I find on both sides of this debate, I’m kind of over this finger pointing for another reason. What good is it serving? We can’t undo the mistakes of the past foreign policy (although it would be great to learn from them and perhaps not blame the victims) nor would changing our immigration laws reduce the threat of terrorism to our country (there are already almost half a million Muslims in Australia and the best way to see more of them radicalised would be through heavy-handed oppression).

The threat of terrorism is a reality of our time. Perhaps now our conversation needs to change from who is to blame, and become how do we respond to it and how to we reduce it? Again I don't want this to be confused as me offering any kind of justification, but it seems a no-brainer to me that the more anti-muslim rhetoric, violence and other hate crimes (is it a coincidence that Britain has seen an upsurge in terrorist attacks within a year of the reported increase in hate crimes after the Brexit referendum?) the easier it is for more Muslim youth to be radicalised.

If I sound happy or blasé about it, I am not. I am worried, saddened and angry like many others, but because I don't get carried away with the media's hysteria, I can keep this in perspective. I'm more worried about climate change and catastrophic global warfare, but I agree there is something particularly disturbing about the brutal and deliberate nature of terrorism. I sadly have little doubt that there will be more lives lost to terrorism in this country, but in the same time period there will probably be 50 times more lives lost to domestic violence and countless more to other senseless violence and negligent vehicular manslaughter passed off as 'accidents', which we seem remarkably unbothered by (that is something that makes me really angry).

Because the other thing that seems really obvious from the last week is that our voyeuristic consumption of terrorist events as news is exactly what terrorists want. I have spoken about the irresponsible and exploitative sensationalismof our media previously and it was on full show again this week with no detail of this awful story seemingly newsworthy. It wasn't just Newscorp's faux news sites such as news.com either. I normally watch ABC News when I get the chance, but found myself turning it off several times in disgust this week.

I don’t like to compare terrorist attacks for which were worse (they are all abhorrent) but in the week before the London attacks a car bomb in Kabul caused a significantly greater number of casualties, but garnered a fraction of the media attention so did a mass killing in the US that had no connection to religion. By contrast, the saturation coverage of any attack in a western population centre gives a simple message to terrorists. If you want maximum exposure, maximum hysteria and maximum perception of your strength, continue to target these Western population centres (As a side note, I think terrorist attacks in non-western cities are just as awful).

Theresa May says it is time to get tough on extremism. I'm okay with that as a concept. As long as you get tough on all extremism. Right wing conservatives won't be able to keep chanting 'freedom of speech,' if we are going to crack down on extremist hate speech. They will have to apply the same standards towards hate speech by Margaret Court, Pauline Hanson and others. And if Tony Abbott really wants to claim Islamophobia never killed anyone, perhaps he should explain that to the families of Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, or any other victims of anti-Muslim violence.

There is much more that I could add here. So much hypocrisy to comment on. So many knee-jerk overreactions, but as I said, I'm tired. I don't want to criticise. I just want people to think more, to care more and to stop making the situation worse. Oh yeah, and not to be psychopathic murderers. That would be nice too.